Printer Frame Sidewall Support for Motor Mounting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printers with a gearbox and motor attached to a metal frame face challenges in manufacturing cost and strength, as integral casting processes are costly and complex, while punched and bent metal frames risk deformation under force or impact.
Innovation Solution
A printer design featuring a frame formed by punching and bending a metal plate, with a transfer motor and gearbox attached to a sturdy sidewall supported by both an upper surface member and a back surface member, ensuring high strength and resistance to deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a metal frame is made by integral casting to ensure high strength, then the strength and resistance to deformation is improved, but the manufacturing cost and process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The frame is divided into multiple separate components (side wall, front wall, back wall, bottom wall) that are formed individually and then assembled together using fastening members. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured separately using cost-effective punching and bending processes, while the assembly structure maintains overall frame strength.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple frame components are combined through fastening members (screws, rivets, or clips) to form a unified structural assembly. The combination of punched and bent metal plate components with fastening members achieves both cost-effectiveness and structural integrity, resolving the contradiction between manufacturing cost and strength.
2Ease of manufacture
If a metal frame is made by punching and bending to reduce manufacturing cost, then the manufacturing cost decreases, but the strength and resistance to deformation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Reinforcing ribs are formed on the inner surfaces of frame components during the punching and bending process, before assembly. These pre-formed reinforcing features enhance the strength and rigidity of each component, ensuring that the final assembled frame has sufficient strength despite using cost-effective manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
Reinforcing ribs are strategically positioned at specific locations within frame components where stress and deformation are most likely to occur. This local reinforcement approach enhances strength and deformation resistance at critical areas without requiring the entire frame to be over-engineered, maintaining cost-effectiveness while improving strength where needed.
3Device complexity
If the sidewall structure is simplified to reduce device complexity, then the device complexity decreases, but the strength and stability against deformation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The sidewall is segmented into a main body portion and a reinforcing rib portion that are formed as separate features and then integrated through the assembly process. This segmentation allows the basic sidewall structure to remain simple while adding reinforcement strategically, reducing overall device complexity compared to monolithic designs while maintaining strength.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3C
AI summary
A printer includes a print head; a platen roller; a frame, to which the print head or the platen roller is attached, that includes a frame body, a sidewall that is perpendicularly bent from the frame body with respect to a longitudinal direction of the platen roller, and a back surface member that is bent from the frame body in parallel to the longitudinal direction of the platen roller, the back surface member including an end portion and a support portion provided to support the sidewall from an inner side and an outer side of the sidewall, respectively, the sidewall being supported by the back surface member while being interposed between the end portion the support portion of the back surface member.